Practice Change for Patients with Nasogastric/Orogastric Enteral Tubes: Safety Improvement Initiative

Purpose:

The safety of bedside insertion for NG/OG tubes has become of increasing concern, particularly in pediatric patients. Serious safety events involving the misplacement of NG/OG enteral tubes prompted a review of our existing practices by a multidisciplinary team.  The focus of the review was to assess existing practice and its alignment with the current literature and best evidence on the topic of NG/OG tube placement. The purpose of this project was to 1) educate multidisciplinary patient care staff to the risks associated with NG/OG tube insertion; 2) revise practice to align with current best evidence regarding NG/OG tube placement; 3) increase patient safety during NG/OG tube insertion through increased monitoring and ongoing patient assessment.

Methods:

To accomplish the goals of improved patient safety while aligning practice with current best evidence, a multidisciplinary team consisting of advance practice nurses, the medical patient safety officer, and nursing leadership took on the following tasks: 1) reviewed the current pertinent literature related to NG/OG tube placement verification; 2) benchmarked our institution with other tertiary care pediatric hospitals of similar size and patient populations; 3) incorporated the expert opinions of advanced practice nurses, bedside clinical nurses, and physicians familiar with the literature and with the clinical challenges of NG/OG tube placement; 4) engaged in small group discussions and education sessions with multidisciplinary groups throughout the institution on proposed practice changes;  5) identified a sub-group of patients at increased risk for tube misplacement, with recommendations on verification of NG/OG tube placement in this group; and 6) revised the order panel in the electronic medical record for NG/OG tube insertion to align with the practice changes. The coordinating team developed a stepwise approach to the procedure using a problem-solving algorithm to guide patient assessment during NG/OG tube placement. An electronic learning module was created pertinent to all clinical patient care providers, and standardized documentation was developed for the procedure.

Results:

Following a comprehensive examination of current practice throughout our institution and an extensive literature review, changes were made in May 2014 to the procedures and standard of practice for NG/OG tube placement. The changes have been adopted hospital-wide for all in-patient and perioperative areas, inclusive of intensive care units. Quarterly checks are ongoing to determine impact and adherence to the new practice changes.

Conclusion: Education to all patient care providers using current best evidence resulted in changes to the current practice of NG/OG tube placement and movement of the procedure to the domain of multidisciplinary patient care rather than solely nursing care.  A multidisciplinary collaborative team with input from many stakeholders for this procedure resulted in changes to the practice and standards for NG/OG tube placement to enhance patient safety during the procedure.